Hartford Symphony Celebrates With Bravo! Gala

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra hosted its annual Bravo! Gala the night of April 28 at the Governor William A. O'Neill State Armory. More than 400 guests enjoyed an evening of cocktails, dinner, auctions and a live performance by the orchestra to benefit the HSO's educational and community engagement programs. Story here.

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Bravo Gala is an annual event that draws hundreds to an elegantly decorated venue every year, allowing guests to experience a very special performance by the orchestra, conducted by Maestra Carolyn Kuan.

This year’s event, held Saturday evening at the Governor William O’Neill State Armory in Hartford, included a cocktail reception, silent auction, dinner and an after-party with dessert and dancing with music by the HSO Jazz Ensemble.

Among the gala’s more than 400 guests was Karen Sprout, who has been an HSO board member since 2010. She says Hartford has an extremely lively arts scene and she’s excited about it.

“Passion for the arts, the symphony specifically. My husband is a professional singer who has sung with many groups, including the symphony,” said Karen Sprout of why she decided to become an board member. “It was a fantastic decision.”

HSO executive director Steve Collins was excited to talk about the new capital campaign.

“Just last week we launched Music Builds Community,” said Steve Collins, HSO executive director. “It is a five-year, $10 million capital campaign to build our endowment and support education programming and innovative programming.”

Collins says they are officially one year into the campaign.The first year was the quiet phase; the public phase was launched about a week ago.

“We have raised to date $4.7 million in just one year,” he said. “We’re off to a really great start. But some really hard work is yet to come.”

Co-chairs of the event were West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor and Jennifer DiBella.

“I love Hartford. I think having music and arts in the city is really critical to the quality of life here,” said DiBella. “I’m really proud of the amazing cultural and arts assets we have here.”